Fear of the Unknown
by Fly Raven. Fly
Summary: Five year old Gus gets his first dose of homophobia.


**A/N: I don't know where this came from. I try to write a persuasive essay on Prop 8, and this comes out. Too bad I can't turn this in. I just love a little Gus. I don't know what it is.**

**I have this idea for another QAF story, the first multi-chap I would have done for it. It's been bugging me for days, but I don't know if I should. It would be a slight crossover between The Da Vinci Code (give it a chance, it could actually work. Especially the way I'm thinking…) and have to do with all of that. What do you think? Would anyone out there give it the time of day? **

**Anyway, enjoy this little story :]**

"Okay, thank you Lenny. Who wants to go next?" Mrs. Mallacote asked us, smiling as Lenny, my best friend- Yeah; she's a girl, whatever. Daddy Jus'sin's other best friend is a girl. 'Cept for my Daddy.—sat down at her desk next to mine. She laughed when I stuck my tongue out at her, and she crossed her eyes at me. I was about to pull my ears and puff out my cheeks at her when the teacher called my name.

I turned my head really fast to look at her, and she had an eyebrow up at me. And she had that weird not-a-whole-smile thing that Daddy always does. "Gus? Would you like to come up and show us your tree?"

I blinked two times; I almost forgot what she was talking about! I was still thinking about making faces at Lenny. That would've been a really good face…

Mrs. Mallacote cleared her throat and I looked at her. "Me? Yeah!" I was going to show the class my family tree Mrs. Mallacote wanted us to make. It was so cool!

I got up from my seat and ran to the front of the class room, right in front of the white board. Mrs. Mallacote was up here a lot when we were doing stuff with Mrs. Kims. She's a teacher, so she has to do stuff like that. I'm going to be a teacher when I turn six, that way I'll be a grown up.

I jumped a little as I stood, Mrs. Mallacote sure was taking a long time getting my tree board I made with Mommy and Momma and Daddy and Daddy Jus'sin. It was really, really big. Taller than me! 'Course, Daddy is way taller than I am, but when I turn six, I'm gonna be that big too.

Mrs. Mallacote put my tree next to me, so it was leaning on the wall. That way, I could point at everything. I looked at my teacher, and she nodded at me. "Go ahead; start with your grandparents, okay?" I smiled really big.

"Okay, well this—" I pointed at Grandma Deb's picture, she was smiling and holding her paper and pencil. "Is my Grandma. She's my Daddy's Mom. Not his real Mommy, but Daddy says she's like his Mom, so that's what counts. This—" this time I pointed at a picture of Nana, she had her yellow hair down and she was dressed so she could show people houses. "Is my Nana, and she's Daddy Jus'sin's Mommy. She's gives houses to people, and gets all dressed up and carries a beefcase. It's like a backpack, but it's not. It's heavy! This is my Mommy's Mom. I don't know her, so I dunno same with Mommy's Dad. I don't know him either. And this is my Momma's Mom. She comes and sees us sometimes, not a lot, but she's pretty cool I guess. This is my Grandpa, Momma's Dad. He comes and sees us sometimes too."

I moved my finger to show my Grandma's and Grandpa's kids. I pointed to Uncle Michael. "This is my uncle. He's Grandma's son, but he's not my Dad's brother. They're best friends. And he works at a comic shop! He gives me some, when I go see them. He's married to my Uncle Ben, and they're my sister's Dad's. This is my Daddy, and he is one of the best Daddy's in the whole world. People give him money so he can make other people buy stuff. I dunno how he does it, but I guess he's good at it. This is my Daddy Jus'sin; he is married to my Daddy. He's not really my Daddy, but Daddy says it's okay to call him my Daddy because he really is. He's my Nana's son, and he has a little sister he calls Mollusk. Isn't that a weird name? And he's an artist. He has really cool pictures. Well, this is my Mommy, she has yellow hair like Daddy Jus'sin and Nana and her Mom. She does stuff with art too. I think she's a crater. This is my Momma, and she's married to my Mommy." I took a big breath, and moved to another branch, this time with the kids and stuff.

"This is my sister, JR. We don't have the same Daddy's, she's Uncle Michael's and Uncle Ben's daughter. But she's Momma's daughter too. And Mommy's. Uncle Michael and Uncle Ben have a son named Hunter, and he's JR's brother, but not my brother. He has a different Mom then all of us. This is me, and I already told you who's my Mom's and Dad's. This is Mollusk, and she's a little older than me, and she's Daddy Jus'sin's little sister, and Nana's daughter. We don't have any pets yet, but Daddy Jus'sin says if we bug Daddy enough we might get a dog. And Daddy Jus'sin and Daddy say I might have another little brother or sister, it all 'pends if they can find a Mommy for the baby." I blew out and turned to look at all the other kids. They looked really funny. A lot of them had scrunched up eyebrows, and some of them's mouths were open. I looked at Lenny, and she laughed when I put my ear near my shoulder. "What?"

Mrs. Mallacote laughed. I didn't see what was funny. She patted her hand on my shoulder and messed up my hair. Then she told me to go sit down, and called up Jaden, so he could tell everyone about his family.

"Wow Gus! Your family is really hard. How do you remember it all?" Lenny asked when I sat next to her.

I moved my shoulders up and down and didn't talk to her. She poked me in my side really hard, so I pulled her hair. She opened her mouth really big and sucked in a lot of air. Then she stuck her tongue out at me and stuck her lips out and crossed her arms. She looked like a duck. I laughed.

"It's not that hard. Why's everyone look so weird?" Lots of people were looking at us.

She looked around too, and uncrossed her arms and stuff, so she looked like a kid again. Good. I don't like ducks. One tried to bite me when I was at the park with Daddy Jus'sin. It wasn't nice.

"I dunno. They sure do look like weirdo's don't they?"

I nodded a lot. Then the bell rang and Mrs. Mallacote told us it was time to recess. Me and Lenny raced to the jungley Jim, and climbed on top of it.

Lenny fell on her butt and I laughed and laughed. She threw woodchips at me.

I got down and was gonna throw some back, but these mean kids who make fun of Lenny all the time, 'cuz she has freckles and was a girl, they came over.

One of the mean kids made a "really ugly face, it's gonna get stuck like that" that Grandma Deb calls, at me and said, "My Dad says people like your parents are disscusding. He says we shouldn't have to breathe the same air as them, and that you're just like your nasty family."

That was not true! That got me real mad, and made me sad too. My parents were not nasty! They're good. I was about to say that when he kept talking.

"And my Mommy says God hates people like your parents. That they should all die, and it's unholy how they live, and Jesus would be 'shamed. That they hate people like your family. Boys aren't supposed to like boys and girls aren't supposed to like girls. Everyone knows it. You're just like them, you and your gross parents."

"That is not true!" I yelled really loud. "God loves everyone, and the only reason anyone should be 'shamed is 'cuz of mean people like you! My family is not gross, you are."

His face got really red, and he pushed me on the ground. Lenny jumped up off the woodchips and yelled at him to knock it off, you big jerk. He was gonna push her too, but she made a fist and punched him in the tummy and he fell down and started crying. I didn't laugh like Lenny, I snuffled. He was so mean.

Mrs. Mallacote came out and yelled at us and took us up to the office so she could call our parents. That mean bully was still crying and Lenny wouldn't say sorry. Good. He is such a jerk. She turned to talk to me and laughed. I scrunched my nose at her.

She took a woodchip out of my hair. "Silly Gus, those go on the ground, not your head!" I laughed, and so did she.

I looked up, when I saw the door open to the office and my eyes got real big. Uh oh.

Daddy and Daddy Jus'sin were standing talking to the teacher. I looked at Lenny and her eyes were all big too. She looked at me. "Sorry, Gus." I swallowed really big. I couldn't say anything back 'cuz Daddy and Daddy Jus'sin were standing in front of me, telling me to grab my bag, it was time to go home.

Oh man. This was so not cool.

Brian sighed and looked in the rearview mirror at his son, who hadn't said anything since they left the school. His little brown head was looking out the window and pouting. He turned his eyes back towards the road, and thought again about what Gus' teacher told him and Justin.

"_A friend of Shawn's heard everything, and told me that Shawn was calling Gus' parents and his family names. Gus yelled back of course, defending you, and said something about God being ashamed of people like Shawn who are so mean. Shawn pushed Gus and Lenny hit Shawn in the stomach and called him a jerk. Honestly, I doubt anyone is going to get in trouble over this. Shawn because what he learned, he learned from his parents. I will talk to him about it, but I seriously doubt anyone is going to do more than that. Gus and Lenny will go home for the rest of the day, but they can come back tomorrow. Oh, and by the way, Gus did wonderfully on his Family Tree."_

Brian shook his head. He thought they'd have a little while longer before Gus would have to deal with homophobic pricks like his classmate. He scowled, little fucker. Doesn't matter if those beliefs are his parents, they'll become his too and who knows, name calling is fine to him, maybe taking a fucking bat to someone's head will be fine too.

Justin it seems, can read minds, or at least feelings, and reached over and laced their fingers together. Brian glanced at him and Justin squeezed his hand. Brian smiled softly and turned back towards the road, pulling into their driveway at Britin. Gus was staying with them for the week. After Mel and Lindsay decided not to move to Canada, and Justin came back from New York a mere month after he left, they moved into Britin and followed through with the plans they had before Justin left. After much convincing on Brian's part of course, the man still wasn't sure if it was something Brian really wanted. Brian shook his head. Twat. He finally convinced him after several days of talking, fucking, and some more talking. Since they moved back in, and got married, Lindsay and Mel decided to let Brian and Michael each switch off weeks with their kids.

Brian stopped the corvette, and pulled the front seat forwards so Gus could climb out. He grabbed his backpack and sulked towards the front door. Brian sighed again and looked at Justin, who shrugged and followed Gus.

Inside, Brian led Gus into the kitchen before he could go running upstairs, and Justin started making lunch since Gus got called home before lunch. Gus climbed onto a stool at the table, and Brian sat across from him, and just stared at his son, who was determinedly looking at his shoes.

"Wanna tell me what happened?" he asked softly, folding his hands.

Gus shrugged, and stayed silent. Brian sighed. "Gus." No reaction. His voice grew stern, "Gus." Finally, he saw hazel eyes identical to his own peeking up at him through his brown locks.

Gus sighed, and mumbled, "He was calling you guy's names."

"Who?"

Gus shrugged again, dejectedly. "Dunno. Some jerk bully. He was calling you guys gross and nasty and said God hated people like you, who like other boys, and that Jesus was 'shamed of you guys. He said that we were nasty." He looked up suddenly and his round cheeks flushed. "But that's not true! God loves everyone, right? And so does Jesus. Grandma Deb says we're all God's kids, and that he loves everyone the same no matter who we are. So he doesn't know what he's talkin' about, does he Daddy?"

Brian sighed, figures the shit, Shawn, not Gus, would bring fucking God into this. How was Brian supposed to tell his son that someone his father didn't even believe in, loved him?

Justin, thankfully, saved him from trying to answer. "Yes, God does love everyone. You're right. It doesn't matter who people are, God _does _love everybody." He set plates down on the table with turkey sandwiches, pretzels, apple juice, and blueberries, and sat in between Gus and Brian.

Gus poked a blueberry. "Then why did he say all that mean stuff?"

Justin bit his lip and looked towards Brian. Brian answered. "Because some people actually believe that. Not to mention they're afraid."

Gus frowned. "Why?"

Brian sighed again. "Because they don't understand. A lot of people are afraid of what they don't understand, and that makes them angry."

"But there is nothing wrong with you loving Daddy Jus'sin, or Mommy loving Momma."

Brian nodded. "You're right. But some people don't think it's normal, and they think it _is _wrong. Not everyone is going to understand about how it is we can love each other, and sadly, stuff like this is going to happen more then once. But don't listen to them, they're not worth it."

"Lenny is though, right? She doesn't care, and she hit that mean boy for being a jerk."

Brian laughed for the first time in the last hour and a half, thinking about the brown- haired green-eyed girl that was Gus' best friend. "Yes, Lenny is. Some people are like Lenny, and they are worth it."

Gus nodded and took a bite out of his sandwich. After he swallowed he said, "I don't like it."

Justin cocked his head. "Like what?"

"I don't like that people don't understand. It hurts a lot of people. I don't like it when people are hurt." He sighed and ate the rest of his sandwich.

Brian blinked, and looked at Justin, who didn't seem to know what to say either.

Gus brightened. "Hey!" he grinned and his Dad's.

Brian raised his eyebrows at his son's sudden mood swing. "What?"

"That mean bully got beat up by a girl!" he giggled.

Justin grinned, and Brian chuckled. God he loved his son.

**So, I don't know if I'm going to add more or not. Probably not, but it's always a possibility. Anyway, I love reviews :] And if anyone has any input about that Crossover, I'm all ears.**

**Ciao! **


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